Indicators are useful proxies that indicate the economic, environmental and social impact of doing business. They are said to be proxies because they can only stand for or approximate the actual impact. For example, climate change might be one of the environmental impacts of doing business; greenhouse gas emissions can be used as a proxy for climate change. Similarly well-being may be a social impact of doing business; income and employment may be proxies that indicate, or point towards, social well-being.
The indicators below are used in the 2005 CSIRO/University of Sydney publication Balancing Act to benchmark 135 sectors of the Australian economy providing a snapshot of Australia’s TBL performance.
For an indication of economic impact Balancing Act used:
- gross operating surplus (or profits)
- dependence on imports (import penetration)
- stimulus to the domestic economy by purchasing of locally produced goods and services (export propensity).
An indication of social impact was gained from:
- income
- tax contributed by the organisation to the ‘Commons’ (government revenue)
- employment generation.
Environmental impact was indicated by:
- greenhouse gas emissions
- primary energy use
- managed water use
- land disturbance.
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